Doughnuts

Three birthdays resulted in in  70 doughnuts arriving for us all to eat.  Needles to say all were eaten by the end of the day.  Fuelled by doughnuts and encouraged by the sunshine everybody was very busy.  Cutting the grass clearing  bushes, painting fences, checking rail and points there is always something to do.

Three boiler tests, some including hydraulic, kept the testers busy and pleased to report all passed.  They seemed be well organised led by Bernard North and it was good to see John Milton and our latest tester Peter Pearson hard at work.

We have been having a lot of derailments on the ground level track and are therefore bringing forward the replacement of all bogies on the older trucks which have been running for something like twenty years.   Good to see Mark Phillips back as he has been poorly for some time.  He was working withe Ron James and Phil Bridgeway measuring the trucks and preparing the design for the new bogies which will use rubber suspension based on the Ron James design and fitted with calliper brakes.

Having purchased a dynamometer module from Station Road Steam, Paul Keller their technical expert came along to sort out a few bugs and Bernard was busy measuring our dynamometer car to see how it could be fitted in.   It will replace the existing mechanical setup which has given excellent service and  bring  us up to date with the latest technology  using an  Android tablet or  phone to display the results.  Bernard and Don Cordall will working to fit it into our dynamometer car but not sure we can make the change before Brimlec on 3rd July.

On Tuesday I visited Ashton Court and was delighted to find it being used by members running their locos –  hence the pictures.  There were five on the truck and they had a good run in the sunshine. After adjusting the anti tipping rail I took the opportunity to check all the raised rack carriages and all are bump free except No3 which Maurice Wheatley will be sorting.

Hope you like the new web site host – it seems a lot faster and easier to use.

Off for four weeks I look forward to all the progress made when I come back.

Bob

PS.  Have a look at the blog by John Chaddock it is excellent and I am sure all aero engine nuts will find it enthralling.  Well done John